Does anybody know of someone who still manufactures “real slate” chalk boards for the college and university market. Have a university client insisting on “real slate” chalk boards for a new classroom/research facility.
We had researched this several years ago for a university project, same request from the university client, and ended up specifying porcelain-enameled steel boards.
As far as we could find, none of the usual suspects still fabricate natural slate chalkboards (of course God has always been the sole-source manufacturer for slate).
Could try and see if salvaged slate chalkboards from demolished schools are available.
We specified a project at Caltech a few years ago and one scientist insisted on good old slate chalk board. He wouldnt budge.
We found a quarry, I believe it was in Minnesota, that could still provide large, structurally sound pieces of slates that we used, once ground and polished, for the project.
Maybe find an architectural salvage yard, or contact a school district’s facility group to see what they have in the backyard…
or try US Markerboard:
http://www.usmarkerboard.com/ctgry/Blackboards-Chalkboards/2?gclid=CM-t4ZaCxK4CFQo0hwodTAlQTQ
Schoolsin seems to have them too:
http://www.schoolsin.com/ghe_traditional_ez_slate_chalkboards_hardboard.html
Neal Slate in Minneapolis has, and resurfaces, slate.
What kind of a modern university uses chalkboards?!
BTW chalk dust is a health hazard. I copied the following text from the MSDS Sheet. Chalk is calcium carbonate which is limestone.
“Chronic exposure to limestone dust at concentrations exceeding occupational exposure limits may cause pneumoconiosis (lung disease). This product contains crystalline silica (quartz) as an impurity. Chronic exposure to crystalline silica dust at concentrations exceeding occupational exposure limits may cause silicosis.”
Isn’t it amazing any of us are alive? The markers I love to sniff are probably a health hazard, too.
if we lived through throwing protractors at the asbestos tiles glued on the ceiling (I count two hazards right there) we can probably live through anything.
Add in deeply inhaling the fresh mimeograph smell and I guess I am glad I survived.
To say nothing about bike riding sans helmet!
Remember what pleasure you felt when you were singled out for the privilege of cleaning the chalkboard erasers? You’d proudly carry them outside and clap them together, raising that huge cloud of chalk dust! Wow…who knew our teachers were trying to kill us?
Curious, I checked out the referenced suppliers above, but none of them have anything (on their websites) on real slate chalkboards.
Of course, my failure might be because we played with liquid mercury as kids. Mercury can run across a sloped desktop really quick, and it makes a coin really shiny and silvery when rubbed between your fingers! (I could have been a rocket scientist except for that!)
Did not play withmercury, but did set the lab counter on fire when the bunsen burner tipped over in 8th grade.
I remember a cool machine at the local shoe store. When standing on its pedestal, your feet would be inside the machine. Looking down through a hood on the top, you could see the bones in your feet. Great fun to see your toes! As you might suspect, the image was produced by an X-ray tube, shooting radiation up through your feet, and, well, anything above them.
In this article, one source reports the radiation level for a 20-second exposure was 7 to 14 rem at the feet, and “about 30 to 170 mrem” at the pelvis. The average annual exposure in the US today is about 360 mrem (millirem), and exposure from a dental x-ray is about 1 mrem.
Maybe that explains why my kids are so weird. 
“Insanity is inherited - parents get it from their children” - Anon (source unknown)
But I remember those machines, too!
I had a lump of natural asbestos in my little mineral collection.
John, was that one from Santa when he ran out of coal?
Nope. Had a lump of anthracite in that collection too, if I recall.
What about the ammonia from the old blackline machines with the yellow coated paper??
Ah yes, I remember the alcohol smell from the mimeograph!
And Lynn, if you think riding a bike sans helmet was bad, what about all those family trips in the car without airbags or the annoying little chime to remind us to put our seatbelts on??
And God forbid we payed lawn darts with the “real” darts with the steel tips that actually penetrated the lawn!!
Roller skating in the street, playing in the old coal bin or old chicken coop (both unused at the time, but certainly not cleaned out), climbing on the stacked lumber on construction sites, trick or treating late at night on Hallowe’en wearing masks with no parents and no reflective clothing, and playgrounds with asphalt or concrete surfaces! What were we thinking!
Burying ourselves in gravel piles.
Digging out spent shells from the police firing range around the corner from my house (maybe exposure to all that lead explains why I turned out like this).
Too many near misses blowing up CO2 canisters filled with black powder and waterproof fuses at Rock Creek Park.
Driving motorcycles so fast (sans helmet of course; why dress for an accident if you don’t plan on having one) that the speedometer was maxed out and we had to gauge speed based on the tach.
Hitchiking to the beach for the weekend and sleeping on the beach since no one had money for a room.
I’m feeling homesick folks.